In Arizona, Program To Recruit Police To Help ICE Agents Gets Mixed Reviews

President Trump wants to revive a program that deputizes local law enforcement to help federal immigration agents cast a wider net.

It’s part of his vow to increase deportations of unauthorized immigrants.

It’s called the 287(g) program, and nowhere was it put into practice more aggressively than in Maricopa County by former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio, who was ousted in 2016, first became renowned for his severe and sometimes demeaning methodology with prisoners — pink underwear and thick, black and white horizontal prison stripes for men and chain gangs for incarcerated women. But it was in immigration enforcement that the sheriff started to acquire a degree of infamy.

The program was created in 1996, but local law enforcement agencies were slow to participate. After Sept. 11, 2001, the pace picked up a bit; around the country, a few dozen local law enforcement agencies designated a handful of their officers to pull double duty as deputized immigration agents…